So it was off to Saitor to see if he would give them the blackrock hammer that he'd taken from Kianne. After some back-and-forth, Aelias finally convinced him to loan it to them.

They returned to the shrine and destroyed the pillar. Almost immediately, Batlin and a defiler of the elements appeared. Kianne refrained from attacking only because she knew if Batlin died, he would possess someone else, which might be even worse than their present situation. Batlin's lackey picked up a piece of the pillar before they could stop her, and the two left after issuing some smug threats. Kianne and Aelias decided to eliminate all traces of the pillars the next time.

Kianne meditated at the shrine again, and this time the shrine was able to communicate with her. Speaking in the first person for the first time that she could remember, it told her that Justice could be restored only when those who were imprisoned were freed. Kianne assumed it meant the people Saitor had jailed after banning the Virtues. It seemed like an almost insurmountable task to Kianne; she tried several times to talk some sense into Saitor peacefully and he steadfastly refused to lift the ban on the Virtues, and she had no idea how to free the prisoners by force.

Tidbits

When they spoke with her next, Rakiah told them not to worry about the note that Kianne and Andrella had found at Siva's tower. She said that Siva or whoever had written the note had no idea what they were talking about. Rakiah claimed to be very knowledgeable about daemons, but nevertheless, Kianne wasn't quite ready to take her word for it in this one situation.

Concerned at being surrounded mostly by strangers, Kianne knew she had no idea how to tell who to trust. She tried the same thing she'd used earlier to locate K'mosh. She took Aelias's hand, and then later Rakiah's, and tried to sense the amount of Light versus Dark in them. Rakiah had the usual mixture of Light and Dark that was typical for humans to posses, but from Aelias, Kianne sensed nothing but an overwhelming source of Light.

Still unsure, but knowing she had to trust Rakiah at least a bit, because there were no other ways to get answers, Kianne mentioned to Rakiah that Kilmas was a daemon. But Rakiah responded that he had been a daemon, but he was no longer. Kianne had no idea how this could be the case, and Rakiah refused to say.

The Ambush

Lord Saitor and Kianne might not have seen eye-to-eye on all matters, but there was one thing they agreed on—the daemons' Avatar had to be stopped. Kianne knew that their Avatar was the only way they could corrupt the tile and gain access to the soul chamber. She had no idea how an evil creature had been able to become the Avatar—rumor had it that even the stones and the runes and shrines worked for her—but she knew with fair certainty that without the Avatar, the daemons could not be freed.

Rather to Kianne's disgust, she learned that Batlin and the Avatar were going around from town to town spreading their false message, probably trying to ripen the people to have their souls stolen later. Saitor was powerless to stop them because they were too strong for his forces to fight.

But Lord Saitor agreed to make sure a message was delivered to Batlin that would arrange a “meeting” for Kianne and Aelias and the daemons' Avatar. Saitor made no secret about his desire for the other Avatar to be slain.

Era Mirage

Aelias and Kianne went to the meeting place, an empty farmhouse. Rather to their surprise, they discovered Era Mirage, the daemons' Avatar, waiting alone for them. She was the same defiler that had been with Batlin earlier, but because of the hood she'd worn then, Kianne had failed to recognize her, all of her attention focused on Batlin.

Era complained that Kianne had failed as an Avatar and that she had therefore taken over. Kianne tried to ask her to stop helping the daemons, but Era was angry with her and refused to listen to her. Kianne told her that she regretted it, because she'd liked Era, but she had no choice to but stand in her way.

Era, on the other hand, showed them why she had been unafraid to meet them alone. Like a dark mirror of Kianne, she was an Avatar, immortal because of her elven blood, and an elementalist. But she was a defiler, not a channeler, and she was able to drain away Kianne's own powers, preventing her from using them.

Using her own magics, Era imprisoned Aelias and Kianne, and though they fought back, they came out on the losing end of the battle.

Captain Soth

Era used an Orb of the Moons (of all things) and took them to a dungeon, where she said they would wait for the captain. She left and Soth—the captain—appeared.

Soth seemed disgusted at his role like Era, but would not be swayed from it. The Guardian had taken over Krynn and now Soth had no choice but to work with him. He explained that he would take them to the Guardian and then their lives would be over.

Soth left briefly and Rakiah emerged from the shadows, working to pick the lock on their cell door. But before she could finish, Soth returned and stabbed her in the back, wounding her terribly though not killing her.

Aelias had a staff of teleportation that Nystul had given him, and he escaped the cell room suddenly, attacking Soth immediately. Kianne followed his move and mayhem erupted. Drawn by the noise, Era appeared and began to cast spells at them. Kianne murmured an apology to Era and struck her with her glass sword, killing her.

This of course irritated Soth further, and he complained that now Kianne had ruined everything, implying that he had actually been working together with Era. Kianne began to suspect there was more to Era's and Soth's cooperation than it seemed on the surface. Perhaps Era was actually trying to destroy the daemons by opening the seal, much as Andrella and Ki had tried earlier. Kianne looked down at Era's body grimly and realized she may have acted too hastily.

Soth tried to take Era's body, but Kianne insisted on reviving Era herself. Soth scoffed at that, asking how she was going to revive an elf, who couldn't be raised using normal means. Kianne said she'd take her to her people in Dawn, but Soth said that Dawn had been attacked and the elves scattered.

Nevertheless, Kianne was adamant that Soth not get Era's body, because she knew he'd raise her as undead or worse. Kianne took her bow from Era (though it no longer seemed to work for her), Era's Orb of the Moons (which turned out to be Michael's), and a blackrock cube she'd been carrying. Soth called her a thief and finally gave in, stalking off without taking Era's body. He said it didn't matter, because they would die and then he could come back to get Era's body later.

Face to Face

After Soth was gone, a black-clad figure appeared. He called himself Lord Onos and said he was the Pagan Lord of Darkness. He said that the Guardian was waiting and he would escort them to him.

Aelias and Kianne tried to fight him, but he was insubstantial, like a wraith, yet he could still hit them. Kianne could not use her magic and even Aelias's sword and spells were ineffective.

Finally, with no choice, they followed Onos out of the dungeon, hoping to be presented with a chance to escape. No such chance came. The exit brought them directly to the sealed Felucca throne room where the Guardian was waiting.

The Guardian scoffed at Kianne, asking if she was actually the true Avatar that the Time Lord had believed in so much that he'd preserved Kianne's existence several times. The Guardian claimed that all he saw before him was a failure, and it was disappointing she was not going to be a challenge. Kianne took out the ancient katana she had saved all of this time, knowing it was the only weapon she had which had any chance of harming the Guardian.

The Guardian promised eternal suffering to Kianne, punishment for all the trouble she'd caused him. But then Soth ran in and said that someone had arrived that the Guardian needed to talk to. The Guardian said he wanted no interruptions, but then Andrella walked in.

Andrella called the Guardian a coward and said he should at least give Kianne a chance to live up to his expectations. The Guardian did not deny the coward label, and finally agreed to play by “Andrella's rules,” as he called them. He said he would allow Kianne to fight the Pagan Lords (of which there were eight, not four, as Kianne had first thought), but that if she failed, Andrella must surrender as well.

The Guardian also tried to insist that Aelias was to die then and there, but Andrella argued for his life as well by saying she would take it up with the new Time Lord: Mondain. As Kianne and Aelias watched in mute astonishment, the Guardian agreed and allowed all three of them to leave.